4 October 2012
Eurosport.com* attracted its highest ever number of fans globally during the peak of the 2012 summer of sport.
New record visitor numbers were also set for Europe collectively, and previous national figures were beaten in four individual European markets.
The impact of the London 2012 Olympic Games saw the Eurosport.com online network attract 33.2 million unique visitors** worldwide in August 2012 and a new European benchmark for the network of 23.4m, breaking the 20 million unique visitors per month target for the first time, and reinforced Eurosport.com’s position as n°1 online sports destination in Europe**.
The Olympic effect also gave the four co-branded* Eurosport sites, in Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK, their best ever monthly performance in August of 14.8m unique visitors, a year on year rise of 47%.
*Eurosport.com comprises 15 websites worldwide in 11 languages, including Yahoo! co-branded sites in Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK and Onet co-branded site in Poland. Eurosport.com has also partnerships with du, the integrated telecom services provider of the United Arab Emirates, to cover the Arabic world and with qq.com for the Chinese market. ** Source: comScore
24 September 2012
The Eurosport Group and FISU (International University Sports Federation) announce they have signed a six-year agreement, starting in September 2012.
This long-term partnership will give the Summer and Winter Universiades – FISU’s highly successful global multi-sport events – comprehensive television coverage on an international basis across Eurosport’s unrivalled pan-European network.
Eurosport will also produce a monthly TV show called CAMPUS dedicated to the World University Championship events and FISU’s global commitment to excellence in body and mind.
The multi-media partnership is completed with the creation of a dedicated university sports section on Eurosport.com which will include the latest results, sport news and videos about the World University Championships and Universiade events. This section will be launched initially in English and French by end of September 2012.
Eurosport has been the home of the Olympic Games and Olympic sports for over 20 years and will bring this knowledge and expertise of multi-sport events to showcase and promote the Universiades.
Eurosport and Eurosport 2 will broadcast 60 hours in HD for each Summer Universiade and 40 hours in HD for each Winter Universiade.
The Summer and Winter Universiades, held every two years, gather student athletes aged 17-28 and are second only to the Olympic Games in terms of number of participating athletes and countries represented.*
The Universiades have proven to showcase future stars who have gone on to perform at World Championship and Olympic level. As an example Australian swimmer Cate Campbell, a Gold medal winner in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay at the 2011 Universiade, became Olympic Champion at the same event in the London 2012 Games.
The deal with FISU includes TV broadcast in Europe of:
– the 27th, 28th and 29th Summer Universiades, held in Kazan, Russia on 6-17 July 2013, Gwanju, Korea on 3-14 July 2015 and Taipei, Chinese Taipei on 19-30 August 2017
– the 26th, 27th and 28th Winter Universiades, taking place in Trentino, Italy on 11-21 December 2013, Granada, Spain in 2015 and Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2017.
CAMPUS will be a 26-minute TV show, broadcast on a monthly basis until December 2017.
The programme will cover the World University Championships, organised by FISU and follow preparations for the Universiades, feature profiles and interviews with the Universiade athletes and explain FISU’s values and university spirit.
CAMPUS goes on air for the first time on Eurosport on 26 September at 21:00 CET. It will include a special focus on the FISU Gala inKazan on 22 September.
FISU President Claude-Louis Gallien commented: “I am extremely pleased that FISU has signed a multi-year partnership with Eurosport for our upcoming events. Like FISU, which strives for Excellence on the academic campus and on the sports field, Eurosport has been pursuing excellence in bringing the major international sports events in the homes of many sports fans. I am confident that with the help of Eurosport the International University Sport Movement will continue to grow in popularity worldwide.”
Laurent-Eric Le Lay, Eurosport Chairman & CEO said: “We are delighted to have this opportunity to bring Eurosport’s unrivalled expertise and multi-media credentials to this long-term partnership with FISU, which will enable fans to follow the upcoming athletes of the future. We are committed to being the first to showcase the best young rising stars in sport as we do with football for example with the NextGen Series and other international youth competitions. We are looking forward to developing a strong relationship with FISU which will give a platform to its highly respected events, commercial partners and key messages. Eurosport is committed to ensuring action from the Universiades and its associated events are accessible to sports fans acrossEurope.”
14 June 2012
Record breaking audience figures have made the 2012 French Open the best ever on Eurosport.
The 2012 tournament attracted an average live audience of 1.1 million viewers on Eurosport, a rise of 7% on the 2011 tournament, which held the previous best live audience average.
Nadal’s historic seventh Roland Garros victory and the return of Maria Sharapova helped to generate the largest ever audience reach for any Grand Slam tennis tournament on Eurosport and Eurosport 2. A total of 61.2M different viewers tuned in to the event during the two week period, beating the previous best figures for a Grand Slam set by the 2011 US Open by 7%.
Extensive daily coverage of the tournament on Eurosport and Eurosport 2 featured 292 hours of broadcast including 207 hours of live action.
National performances were strongest in Spain where average live audiences increased by + 100% and by + 75% respectively in Poland vs. 2011.
In addition, the Sharapova – Errani match was the best women’s final since 1994 in terms of live average audience with 1.9 million viewers.
Eurosport’s in-house production also contributed to the rise in popularity of the tournament on the channel. “Game, Set and Mats”, Eurosport’s exclusive on site live show hosted by Mats Wilander in evening primetime was watched by its largest ever audience. The programme reached 21.5 million different viewers throughout the tournament on Eurosport and Eurosport 2, +13% vs 2011.
2012 French Open audiences confirm the strength and the quality of Eurosport’s Grand Slam tennis offer. French and US Opens rights were renewed in January, respectively through 2014 and 2017 editions. An Australian Open multi-year contract was renewed in 2011.
French open audiences also contributed to the positive audience growth of Eurosport Group TV audiences for first half of 2012. From 2 January to 10 June, TV audiences across the Eurosport Group rose by 12%, compared to the same period in 2011.
Sources: AGF/GfK, BARB, SKO, MMS, TNS-Gallup, Kantar Media, AGB NMR, Armadata/Kantar, Auditel, Mediametrie – Techedge
www.eurosport.com
9 June 2012
Eurosport is to make its popular mobile streaming app available to Android users for the first time today, and has signed Samsung as exclusive launch partner.
Sports fans with Android devices across Europe* will be able to download the Eurosport Player app, to access live simulcasts of both Eurosport and Eurosport 2 TV channels.
Customers will be able to watch the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as live cycling from the Tour de France, motorsports, football, snooker, wintersports and live tennis action from US Open tennis Grand Slam.
The arrival on the Android platform is also expected to open up new audiences for Eurosport’s commercial clients.
As part of the Android launch initiative Samsung customers who purchase a GALAXY SIII will receive a month long promotional subscription to the Player app to experience Eurosport’s comprehensive London 2012 Olympic Games coverage. (1 month promotional period begins on July 14th for 30 days until August 12th) Customers can learn more about this offer by visiting Galaxys3.eurosportplayer.com.
Samsung, which is a Worldwide Olympic Partner, is also extending its promotion with Eurosport during the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Viewers can win Samsung GALAXY SIII’s by answering questions posed on Eurosport’s daily Olympic TV show “Together to London” via the Londonbuzz.Eurosport.com digital hub and use the online site to interact with athlete guests on-air.
Laurent Eric Le Lay, Eurosport Chairman & CEO, said: “The Eurosport Player app demonstrates how we are putting mobile at the core of our online development. We have received positive feedback from sports fans who have downloaded the app and are delighted to be able to now make our unrivalled content available to Android users. Eurosport continues to attract strong audiences across all its available screens, TV, PC, mobile and tablet and with such an exciting summer of sport ahead we are able to help fans follow the action wherever they are.”
Young Hee Lee, SVP and head of global marketing at mobile communications business said, “We are excited to be taking part in London 2012 Olympic Games and partner with Eurosport to promote the new GALAXY SIII to sports fans. I hope our customers will enjoy the mobile experiences Samsung is providing via the Eurosport Player app.”
The Eurosport Player app for Android is available for download today, on the Google Play app market https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eurosport&hl=en via a monthly pass costing 5.90 euros, or on Samsung Apps for GALAXY SIII users http://www.samsungapps.com/topApps/topAppsDetail.as?categoryId=G000016428&productId=G00007114287.
A Eurosport Player app is already available on the iOS operating system. The Player is also on PCs, and offers additional exclusive content and access to VoD.
All Player app versions are available at http://www.eurosportplayer.com/
1 June 2012
TV audiences across the Eurosport Group rose by 11% in the first five months of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011.
In a TV landscape offering endless choice viewers are choosing Eurosport, attracted by its wealth of live action, expert analysis and high production values.
Despite increasing competition for consumers time and attention from both different genres and an increasing multi-screen home environment Eurosport has cut through to secure growing TV audiences.
All Eurosport TV channels performed strongly during the first five months of the year, with Eurosport’s average TV audience rising by 7% and Eurosport 2 generating an average TV audience rise of +37%.
Audiences have enjoyed hours of live action and strong production on TV so far in 2012 from the Africa Cup of Nations, Australian Open tennis Grand Slam, international cycling and the finale of the Winter Sports season as well as dedicated local content in specific markets such as MotoGP, Bundesliga, Davis Cup tennis.
The strongest growth in average TV audiences has been seen in Poland with a rise of 43% vs 2011. It is joined across the continent with +25% average TV audiences in Italy, +22% in France, +12% in Romania, +11% in Netherlands, +11% in UK and +9% in Sweden.
This has generated impressive reach of audience for the channel’s major TV events in 2012. The thrilling 2012 Australian Open Grand Slam attracted over 56.4M different TV viewers on Eurosport channels, this was closely followed by the Africa Cup of Nations which drew 56.3M different TV viewers. Snooker also made a positive contribution with over 47M different TV viewers for the 2012 World Championships.
Eurosport’s commitment to live action remains unrivalled with over 50% of the television schedule so far in 2012 dedicated to live content.
And the channel’s exceptional year of sport continues in the coming months with action currently from the French Open tennis at Roland Garros, followed by UEFA Euro 2012, Athletics European Championships, Tour de France, London 2012 Olympic Games and US Open tennis.
Eurosport Chairman & CEO Laurent Eric Le Lay said: “Today sports fan consumers have more content and many channels to choose from and they are in control. At Eurosport, we believe providing the best experience possible on TV to viewers is our mission. And that is why sports fans choose us. The figures prove it.”
“It is a credit to everyone at Eurosport that we can announce such a strong start to the year thanks to the strength of our live coverage and production around major events. 2012 is an exceptional year of sport and the coming months represent an unique period in sport so we look forward to welcoming even more fans to our TV channels and across the entire platform of Eurosport channels beyond TV to internet and on all devices.”
Figures were calculated on the period “2nd January 2012 – 27th May 2012”
Sources: AGF/GfK, BARB, SKO, MMS, TNS-Gallup, Kantar Media, AGB NMR, Armadata/Kantar, Auditel, Mediametrie – Techedge, Reach based on people watching a dedicated programme at least 60 seconds
www.eurosport.com
